White Stripes › The Big Three Killed My Baby Guitar Tab

The White Stripes[Bonus Track] Tabs:

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Send "The Big Three Killed My Baby" Ringtone to your Cell Phone

Band: The White Stripes
Song: The Big Three Killed My Baby
Album: The White Stripes
Words And Music: Jack White
Tabber: WaveOfMutilation

Standard Tuning

A really sick song from their first album. Tabbed it out all by my lonesome for your enjoyment. 
I'll just give u the chords and u figure out the strumming pattern for yurself.


Chorus/ Verse 1/ Verse 3
--------
--------
--------
--5--3--
--5--3--
--3--1--


Verse 2
--------------------------
--------------------------
--------------------------
--5--3--8--9--10--11--12--
--5--3--8--9--10--11--12--
--3--1--6--7---8---9--10--


Outro
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-----------
-----------
--5--3--4--
--5--3--4--
--3--1--2--


Song Order
   --
Chorus
Verse 1
Chorus
Verse 2
Chorus
Verse 3
Chorus
Outro


Lyrics
  --
The big three killed my baby 
No money in my hand again 
The big three killed my baby 
Nobody's coming home again 

Their ideas made me want to spit 
A hundred dollars goes down the pit 
30,000 wheels are rollin' 
And my stick shift hands are swollen 
Everything involved is shady 
The big three killed my baby 

The big three killed my baby 
No money in my hand again 
The big three killed my baby 
Nobody's coming home again 

Why dont you take the day off and try to repair?
A billion others dont seem to care 
Better ideas are stuck in the mud 
The motors runnin' on tuckers blood 
Dont let them tell you the future's electric 
Cause gasolines not measured in metric 
30,000 wheels are spinnin' 
And oil company faces are grinnin' 
Now my hands are turnin' red 
And i found out my baby is dead 

The big three killed my baby 
No money in my hand again 
The big three killed my baby 
Nobody's coming home again 

Well I've said it now, nothings changed 
People are burnin for pocket change 
And creative minds are lazy 
And the big three killed my baby 

And my baby's my common sense 
So dont feed me planned obsolescence 
Yeah, my baby's my common sense 
So dont feed my planned obsolescence 

I'm about to have another blowout 
I'm about to have another blowout

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Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques


No Picture metalis4ever Average	#1 by metalis4ever at Sep 7, 1971 at 12:42 AM EST
	Not knowing much about the auto-making industry, I (like "YouWantMyUsername") thought it was about slot machine addiction: 1- no money in my hand again 2- a hundred dollars goes down the pit 3- and my stick shift hands are swollen At first, I saw the Big 3 as being the 3 spinning wheels in the slot machine and it kills your common sense that says the odds are stacked against you. Of course, the car imagery is stronger is this song, but I think there are some clever parallels between this auto-making conspiracy and gambling (eg-big winners and big losers). Both speak to our greed as business people & consumers and how we are gambling away our babies' futures on unimaginative/lazy pipedreams. There are little ethics in consumerism today and consumerism is what connects us the most. The Big 3 is a powerhouse and it is causing our brains to rot.

No Picture Julian Average	#2 by Julian . at Oct 18, 1972 at 5:20 AM EST
	Jack trying to piss someone off majorly here ... They come onstage to it and it freaked me out :\|

No Picture Average	#3 by nirvana at Oct 17, 1974 at 9:55 AM EST
	I'm not sure if it has anything to do with THIS song, but three seems to be a magic number with the white stripes. Both De Stijl and White Blood Cells have roman numeral threes in the booklet, they're label is Third Man, Jack has been seen in various shirts with threes on them and the e's on De Stijl are sideways roman numeral threes. There may be more references I missed. I'm not sure why they like the number three. I know it's a holy number (like 40 or 7), but I don't know if that would really mean anything. Well, there's what I know.

No Picture Tyler Average	#4 by Tyler at May 27, 1975 at 11:30 PM EST
	Jack has been quoted many times talking about this song, and saying how much he hates cars and the major car companies.

No Picture Josh Average	#5 by Josh at Jan 8, 1977 at 12:52 AM EST
	It's cathartic!!!

No Picture Satan SAF! Rhythm Player	#6 by Satan SAF! Lucifer at Aug 18, 1977 at 1:15 AM EST
	i take that back, it seems he was referring to the motor companies?

No Picture Josh Professional	#7 by Josh Wilson at Jan 19, 1978 at 12:03 PM EST
	Sounds very political, but even before I thought cars I knew it was about some industry somehow. Still reminds me of Kill Bill though.

No Picture Rebecca Average	#8 by Rebecca Lira at Mar 29, 1978 at 1:47 PM EST
	Prolly just having some fun with this...

No Picture Basstard Professional	#9 by Basstard at Jul 11, 1981 at 9:08 AM EST
	well the white stripes were based in detroit so it would make sense if it were about cars, and car companies

No Picture Mike Lead Player	#10 by Mike at Jun 30, 1982 at 4:39 PM EST
	i REFUSE to think tha this is by the white stripes i just do

No Picture aleXeXeX Rhythm Player	#11 by aleXeXeX at Aug 29, 1984 at 8:04 PM EST
	I quite like it The stuff on their singles is a lot more experimental than the stuff on the albums It's catchy

No Picture Vinnie Rhythm Player	#12 by Vinnie Valium at Nov 20, 1985 at 8:47 AM EST
	The big 3 wer actually in world war 1, they wer Lloyd George of Britain, Woodrow Wilson of America and Clemenceau of France.

No Picture jordan Porreca Lead Player	#13 by jordan Porreca porreca at Oct 27, 1987 at 12:02 PM EST
	yes, it is about GM, Ford and Chrysler, because the real Meg died in a car accident (the Big Three killed my baby, "my baby" referring to Meg). Then Jack was so depressed he wanted to die, but then a good idea came to his mind, and he made MegBot (now MegBot 2.0.). Ok no, but I read this in a page that claims meg is a robot.

No Picture nate Average	#14 by nate eastman at Jan 10, 1988 at 7:26 AM EST
	i think Jack White is mocking Renée in this song... "Let's go shopping!"

No Picture drw Average	#15 by drw drw at Apr 1, 1988 at 11:44 PM EST
	i thought it was the big three at the treaty of versailles(george clemanceau, david lloyd george, woodrow wilson) because it was thought that due to the harshness of the treaty there would be yet another generation put out to war (the big three killed my baby) and it happened with world war two. Although i now think it's about the cars, just makes more sense.

No Picture Venti Average	#16 by Venti at Jan 20, 1989 at 1:35 PM EST
	Easy easy easy! The biggest symbolism should come from the fact that the Stripes are from Detroit, former home of the world-leading American auto industry, and now the centerpiece of the Rust Belt. This song is a general indictment of the American auto industry. From the title ("The Big Three" are, as mentioned above, Chrysler, GM and Ford) and the mentioning of the burdens upon the consumer ("my stickshift hands are swollen," "a billion others don't seem to care" that the cars are generally unreliable ["why don't you take the day off and try to repair"] whilst "a billion others don't seem to care" represents the lasting image of superiority despite the decline of American automobiles in general quality. Both "Tucker's blood" and "creative minds are lazy" rail about the unwillingness of American auto manufacturers to adopt any measurable innovation in their vehicles, perhaps because "oil company faces are grinnin'," and "gasoline's not measured in Metric," suggesting the refusal of the Big Three to consider 'green' cars, which in turn implies collusion between oil producers and traditionally-inefficient US automakers. Perhaps the most damning line is the referral to "planned obsolescence," which is a reference to Ralph Nader's _Unsafe At Any Speed_, which outlined how the then-dominant(in the '60s) Big Three intentionally designed inferior products to ensure that they were upstaged by later models from the same manufacturer, therefore generating sales within the marketshare which had bought their products very recently.

No Picture Dudevill Average	#17 by Dudevill at Sep 14, 1991 at 4:48 PM EST
	I know that on the White Stripes DVD "Under Blackpool Lights" Jack says something like this in the middle of this song: "And General Motors did it...and I know Chrysler did it...and I'm (not) sure Ford did it...and you know that all did it..." Its hard to hear exactly what he says, his voice is kinda raspy like that...but he does say the Big Three motor companies!!

No Picture Tony Average	#18 by Tony Riemer at Mar 21, 1992 at 2:02 AM EST
	I know it's the 3 auto makers but I had another idea just for kicks. Slot machine addiction. Give it a listen except for the oil and gas stuff it's not too far off.

No Picture kenzie Professional Badass	#19 by kenzie at Feb 18, 1993 at 4:44 AM EST
	You guys are probably right, but there's a punk rock song called "The KKK took my baby away" and i was thinking maybe big 3? you know? Oh well, I've never even heard the song, I just think White Stripes are awesome. POSTD RULES!!!!!!!

No Picture tom Average	#20 by tom jenkins at Apr 6, 1994 at 10:26 PM EST
	yah better leave it to the music too bad hes just selling stuff with this song

No Picture Alex Average	#21 by Alex P at Nov 5, 1994 at 5:39 AM EST
	before i heard the whole car thing (which now makes 100% sense) i thought it was about the mafia through this one huge metaphor but it isnt

No Picture Aaron Average	#22 by Aaron Doyle at May 5, 1995 at 1:52 AM EST
	who the fuck are the big three? why is jack wearing a shirt with a small three on the cover of this single? why don't they play a show in this shitty town? oh well this song is fucking awesome

No Picture Alex Average	#23 by Alex P at Jun 14, 1995 at 3:16 PM EST
	This song refers to the "Big 3" record companies, as Jack has explained. Of course, it's really the "Big 4" record companies, and at the tims this song was released it was the "Big 5" record companies, but whatever.

No Picture Andrea Average	#24 by Andrea Lauria at Feb 23, 1999 at 2:40 AM EST
	LMAO@ the meg is a robot theory....i was on a website about the theory...i couldt possibly laugh harder....actually i could..aahahhahahahahaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA....im a new white stripes fan and i cannot believe there are such stupid fans of a stupid rumour as this one... ball and biscuit best song EVER!. p.s i love hiphop also!

No Picture hamadi Wanna Be	#25 by hamadi alameddine at Dec 30, 2000 at 3:02 AM EST
	It's definitely about the Big 3 Automakers. I think it's specifically about the allegations that GM and others purposely bought up electric trolley companies to sell off the trolleys so that people would have to use buses made by GM. That would be the "planned obsolesence", that the streetcars were deliberately being bought up to be destroyed. There is some elaboration here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy The baby is the electric motor, and it's use in everyday life, I think

No Picture Francesco Lead Player	#26 by Francesco DeVito at Mar 5, 2001 at 5:06 AM EST
	yea i think its about the car companies also like scar was saying about the movie tucker "better ideas are stuck in the mud the motors runnin' on tuckers blood" seems to me its quite obvious what hes singing about :P

No Picture quinn almann ' Wanna Be	#27 by quinn almann ' jk carson at Apr 19, 2001 at 1:22 AM EST
	actually the big 3 is what was used to refer to the major automobile monopolies in the 1950s-1960s; GM, Ford, and Chrysler. i'm sure about this due to the car references and if you've ever watched the movie Tucker, you'd know what i'm talking about basically this guy tried to start a car company and was having trouble trying to compete with the big 3's way of eliminating competition through black mail and money. in the end his company was taken away and only a handful of tuckers (cars) were ever made, but they're worth a shitload today. he was a threat to the big 3 because of his innovative safety designs which we all see being used today: seat belts, pop out windshields, more space between the car and the tire, better headlights, etc.

No Picture josh Average	#28 by josh stagel at Jul 8, 2001 at 5:41 PM EST
	like this song.. i dk how u can think the big three is refereing to anything but the car companines

No Picture Mike Average	#29 by Mike heidkamp at Dec 3, 2001 at 6:55 AM EST
	It´s bad!!!

No Picture zoe Wanna Be	#30 by zoe cherrie at Feb 25, 2002 at 5:54 AM EST
	just to add this, jack's picks also all are red and have the roman numer III on one side and a big 3 on the other side

No Picture Badass	#31 by guess wha' i suck at Nov 30, 2005 at 6:13 PM EST
	does anyone know if the big three referred to in this song are the historical allied leaders during world war ii? that is: churchill, roosevelt, and stalin? it would add a new, more political dimension to this song if it were.

No Picture J_ROC Lead Player	#32 by J_ROC at Jan 11, 2006 at 6:41 AM EST
	Yeh this is definatley about the motor companies - on the live in blackpool DVD he sings "and general motors did it, and [something] chyrsler did it, then [something] ford did it". My personal theory is that his "baby" might be detroit as it has been completley destroyed by the motor companies, who basically own the city now - although things are slowly improving.

No Picture Joe Average	#33 by Joe Montana at Mar 9, 2007 at 11:40 PM EST
	Unless there is some other political meaning, the obvious face value one is against the car industry. A few of you mentioned the movie "Tucker, a man and his dream" and i just wanna caution you that while it is true Tucker was destroyed, it was by the government not the big three. Tuckers are about the most beautiful cars ever made. They only got 51 made and 47 still exist today. 1/2 million is how much the last one that got sold went for so good luck.